Dead fish roundup: Here we go again on Klamath; where EPA never went on salmon-killing pesticides; vanishing fish

Even on solstice day*, we can’t cover everything under the sun here at Dateline Earth. So, with enviro news breaking out seemingly all over, we’re going for the roundup format today, with perhaps a bit of a theme: dead fish baking in the sun.

Fish found dead in the Klamath this morning
Photo/Klamath Riverkeeper

It looks like another fish kill could be starting in the Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California. Apparently the conditions are ripe, and this morning dead young ‘uns started showing up. Regina Chichizola of Klamath Riverkeeper reports: “There’s no official fish kill (declared) yet but we are seeing a high level of dead fish.” Of approximately 50 young fish in a sampling device checked this morning, some 25 were dead, she reports. You’ll recall this was the scene of a massive endangered-species showdown (and one of our biggest fish kills) back in 2002.

Speaking of dead fish, this piece by Mark Hume in today’s Globe and Mail is just heartbreaking. It deals with a small fish akin to a herring called a eulachon that has mysteriously disappeared along the West coast from Canada to California. Wonder if that’s related to the weird bird deaths hereabouts in 2005 and 2006?

And speaking of dead fish, how about salmon? That’s what pesticides can do to them, and one of the reasons federal judge John Coughenour told EPA and the National Marine Fisheries Service to figure out what to do. That was five years ago. Today, enviros wrote a letter to NMFS complaining that not one of the dozens of pesticides ordered reviewed has been finished. Of course, pesticides do more than kill fish — they can also make salmon unable to feed or swim. But, says Patti Goldman, the Earthjustice legal eagle whose sharp talons plucked this ruling out of the federal courts, EPA has focused as it always does on fish mortalities. The fish biologists at NMFS also need to examine sub-lethal effects, she says, and, “I think the problem is EPA has never given (NMFS) enough (information) and politically (NMFS) doesn’t want to send a letter complaining about that.” The basic message behind today’s letter from enviros to NMFS: Get moving on this or we’ll soon be darkening the courthouse doorway once again.

* Oops. I jumped the gun by a day here. Actually, the solstice is Thursday — when we Seattleties are getting a full two seconds of extra sunlight over Wednesday. Guess my time at the Fremont Solstice Parade on Saturday got me over-eager.